


you are the only one I promise the stars

by boombashkas



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Jason/Percy brotp, M/M, and a little Jason/Hazel friendship too strangely enough, birthday fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-11
Updated: 2014-11-11
Packaged: 2018-02-24 18:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2592365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boombashkas/pseuds/boombashkas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jason is horrible with birthdays and usually that's not a problem. When it's Nico's birthday though, he doesn't care how many times he messes up - as long as he gets one right.</p><p>~*~</p><p>This fic is for my buddy Lin - it's her birthday today! I hope you like this (let's act like writing someone a birthday fic as a birthday gift isn't incredibly boring). Have an awesome birthday!</p>
            </blockquote>





	you are the only one I promise the stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vanillaSunset](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanillaSunset/gifts).



The first time Jason realized that he didn’t know very basic things about his boyfriend was three months after they started dating.

It was a few months after they had put their evil grandma back to sleep again and the two had gotten together during the end of the year. Only year-rounder campers were still around now, and while Percy had been at camp during summer, all he had done was slump around on Jason and whine about how he was getting separation anxiety. Jason just told him to stop being dramatic, even though he wasn’t exactly looking forward to Percy leaving for the school year either. Over the last few months, he’d become great friends with Percy and spent a lot of time with him, to the point where people started making jokes about how they ‘might as well start dating’. Percy agreed with those people, actually, but he always stuck a ‘if only you weren’t so _in love_ with Nico’ at the end.

Which wasn’t untrue but. He didn’t have to say it _right in front_ of Nico, did he?

So anyway.

The day Jason came to this epiphany, Percy wasn’t there to make kissy faces whenever he held hands with Nico, which Jason had to admit he kinda missed. But on the plus side – Nico bundled up in winter clothes was the cutest thing he’d ever seen.

“It’s not even that cold,” Nico complained when Jason pulled a little beanie over his head and pulled it down near his eyes.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jason replied, “It looks cute.”

Nico just rolled his eyes at him and grabbed his hand. “Come _on_ , let’s go.”

It was a Sunday, which meant no classes that day so they could do whatever they liked. So of course they walked around the whole camp aimlessly, stopping once or twice to make out (it might have been more than once or twice) or talk to one of their friends. When they sat down under a tree near the lake, Nico was in the middle of telling Jason some story involving Reyna and a group of monkeys when the air in front of them shimmered to reveal Hazel’s beaming face.

“Nico!” she grinned through the Iris Message. “Happy birthday!”

A huge smile spread across Nico’s face. “You remembered,” he said.

“Of course I remembered! You’d think I’d forget _your_ birthday? Oh and Jason’s with you. Wait, did I interrupt something?” she raised an eyebrow at Jason. “Jason, what do you have planned for Nico today? A birthday surprise, maybe?”

Jason, suffice to say, was shocked. “It’s – it’s your birthday?” he squeaked in an incredibly manly way.

Nico, thank the gods, didn’t look pissed. He actually looked amused. “Yup,” he said, obviously trying to fight back a smile.

“Wait a minute,” Hazel said, her voice changing from yay-happy-days to say-that-to-my-face. “You _forgot_ his birthday?”

Jason put his hands to his cheeks, completely embarrassed. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t even know when Nico’s birthday was. What the hell? How could he not know the day Nico di Angelo graced the earth?

“It’s not his fault,” Nico said to Hazel, “He didn’t know it’s my birthday today.”

Hazel was not impressed. Hazel was never impressed with Jason, sadly. “He doesn’t know when your birthday is?” she rounded on Jason. “You never bothered to ask?”

“I – uh – I didn’t – sorry?”

“Why are you saying sorry to _me_?”

Jason turned to Nico, who looked like he was about to burst out laughing. “Nico,” he said, putting his hands on Nico’s shoulders. “Nico, I’m so sorry, I can’t believe – I must have asked you sometime, I think I just forgot.”

“You did ask me a lot of times,” Nico admitted, “I always changed the subject.”

“What?” Hazel said. Why was she still here again? “Why?”

“I already have _you_ making a big deal out of it,” Nico told her, “And Reyna. I don’t want yet another person to…”

“Are you kidding?” Jason cried. “Nico, it’s your _birthday_! You’re fifteen! We should celebrate.”

“Here we go.”

“It’s going to be awesome. We’ll have a party! We’ll invite everyone – well, I mean, there’s no one here anymore but we could go to Camp Jupiter!”

“Yeah!” Hazel agreed excitedly. “Nico – you, me, Reyna, Frank, we’ll have _so_ much fun.”

“I think you’re forgetting someone,” Jason said drily.

“Well, Coach Hedge can come if he _really_ wants to.”

“I swear to Zeus, Hazel…”

“This was exactly what I was scared of,” Nico held up his adorable gloved hands. “It’s just a birthday.”

“But Nico,” Jason said as seriously as he could, “You’re fifteen. How many times do you turn fifteen? We should celebrate.”

“Really,” Nico said firmly, “I really don’t want a party. Please?” he looked to Hazel, activating the puppy dog eyes that Jason was sure he learned from Percy.

Hazel bit her lip. “Well…”

“Please?”

Jason was trying to discreetly shake his head at her but Hazel just ignored him (as usual) and said, “Fine, it’s your birthday anyway. If you don’t want to do it, I can’t force you. But I _am_ going to send a present. Chiron should get it in the mail soon, he’ll give it to you.”

“It better be something good,” Nico said playfully.

“It is. At least I remembered to give you one. Unlike some people.” She sent Jason a narrow-eyed glare.

Jason liked to think he was above sticking his tongue out at his boyfriend’s little sister. He wasn’t.

Once the Iris Message ended, Jason turned to Nico with the most apologetic face he could manage. What kind of a person didn’t know when his boyfriend’s birthday was? Sweet Zeus, he knew when Clarisse’s birthday was, but not _Nico’s_?

The cold had turned Nico’s cheeks and the tip of his nose pink, which would have been enough to make Jason want to kiss him, but Nico trying (and failing) to hide his smile just made him ridiculously attractive. “Don’t worry,” he consoled Jason, “You can make up for it with an awesome present.”

“I will,” Jason said eagerly, “But it might be a little late – seeing as how I just found out that it’s your birthday ten minutes ago.”

“That’s okay,” Nico says, scooching closer, “There’s _other_ ways for you to make up for it now.”

~*~

So yeah, Nico’s first birthday while dating Jason ended up good, even though Jason demonstrated how horrible he was at this whole boyfriend thing. The next year, though, he was ready.

“Is this really necessary?” Frank asked.

“Yes.”

“Really, Jason? Five confetti machines are _really_ necessary?”

“Yes they are, Frank. Wouldn’t you do all of this for Hazel on _her_ birthday?”

“Well, I don’t have to make up for not knowing about her birthday last year, so.”

“Just shut up and put the machines where I told you to.”

“But for real, bro,” Leo said as Frank lugged the machines around the clearing, “I think you’re underestimating how much confetti each machine throws. We’re going to be _drowning_ in confetti.”

“Nobody’s going to be drowning on my watch!” Percy boomed from behind them, megaphone to his mouth. He had Frank’s huge hoodie tied around his neck like a cape as he raced a shrieking Piper around in circles.

Jason watched him run, a completely impassive expression on his face. “Who forgot to keep the sugar away from Percy?” he asked, turning to Annabeth, who was fiddling with the firework rockets alongside Leo.

“Don’t worry, he’s loud right now but he’s not going to ruin Nico’s birthday,” Annabeth assured him.

“Yeah, I’m _not the type_ ,” Percy called through the megaphone. Jason groaned, and he wasn’t the only one. Percy still hadn’t forgiven Nico for the little comment he’d made months ago and kept bringing it up, no matter how much everyone told him to shut up.

“Percy, put the megaphone down - you’re making too much noise, Nico’s going to hear you!” Hazel called over from where she was arranging candles on the cake. “Leo, get over here and light these candles.”

The seven of them weren’t the only people gathered in the clearing, but they were definitely the loudest. Chiron had allowed them to have a surprise birthday for Nico in the forest, choosing a clearing close to camp so they wouldn’t be attacked by monsters. Jason stood on a boulder in the middle of the clearing, delegating orders while fifteen or so other people scurried around, fixing banners and balloons, getting the music and fireworks systems ready, making the food look nice (and eating some of it too), and in Piper and Percy’s case, running around aimlessly.

Speaking of which.

“Piper!” Jason called. “Percy! Can you guys _please_ …”

“Guys?” Frank called from where he was peering out of the clearing. “I think I see Reyna and Nico headed this way.”

Jason’s eyes widened. Reyna was early. “Annabeth, Leo,” he called. “All systems go?”

“All good here,” Annabeth nodded near the fireworks.

Jason hopped off the boulder so that they could cover it with a table cloth for the cake to be placed on. “Hazel, bring the cake forward. Frank, get the confetti ready. Percy, calm down. Everyone ready?”

“Shh,” Hazel whispered, “I hear them.”

Everyone fell silent, huddling together and stealing excited glances. A few feet out of the clearing, they could hear Reyna: “I could’ve sworn I saw that nymph go this way – come on, Nico.”

“Light the candles,” Jason whispered to Leo, who leaned into the cake with a blazing hand. Frank nodded to Jason, ready to activate all five of the confetti canons.

This was going to be the best birthday Nico ever had. Jason could hardly wait.

He stepped into the clearing, Reyna right behind him, and froze.

Jason had known something would go wrong – a little bump now and then - but everyone catching on fire wasn’t something even Rachel could’ve foreseen.

Before anyone was even done with the first syllable of “SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NICO!”, the canons _boomed._

Leo had said there would be a lot of confetti, but Jason hadn’t realized it would be this much. His whole world was confetti. There was confetti everywhere – in his mouth, on his head, settling on his shoulders. It was like a second skin and the worst part was, the air was so thick with confetti, he couldn’t see Nico, but he could see all his incredibly capable and talented monster-fighting friends proceed to freak out over a bunch of confetti.

Grover actually gasped a piece it in and started choking, and of course Annabeth and Percy panicked, both of them trying to perform something halfway between CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. Piper actually fell into the sea of confetti and didn’t resurface, which was a bit worrying, but Frank instantly started digging around for her so hopefully she would be okay. And then Hazel – of course it was Hazel – dived at the cake to save it from the confetti and shoved Leo to the side, who was still literally flaming.

Sinking into knee-deep confetti with a hand on fire isn’t a very advisable thing to do.

In the end, nobody got seriously hurt. Percy, who’d promised not to let anyone drown in confetti, had ended up emptying practically all the water from nearby creeks onto the party guests so they wouldn’t _burn_ from confetti. There was complete chaos for what felt like forever, people screaming and trying to pat the fire out, upending the table full of food (the cake had been destroyed in the first five seconds), and then Percy’s flood ruining the rest of the decorations. 

By the time the pandemonium died down, everyone was soaked (except for Percy), burned (except for Leo) and covered in food. Even Nico and Reyna weren’t spared. Nico, who had been looking so nice in his black jeans and dark blue shirt, was completely soaked, hair plastered to his forehead. His mouth was hanging open, eyes wide and there was a smear of chocolate cupcake on his cheek. He met Jason’s eyes and raised his eyebrows.

“Uh,” Jason said. “Happy birthday?”

Nico blinked and peered around the disaster. “Well,” he said. “It was definitely a surprise.”

There was no fixing it after that. Most people wished Nico a happy birthday, told them about how amazing their gift had been before it had went up in flames, and went back to bed (or in Grover’s case, the infirmary). The others stayed back to help clean the disaster up, and watching Nico wipe his birthday cake off of a boulder made Jason want to punch himself in the face.

“It’s okay,” Nico said at the end of the night, when everyone else had left.

“No, it’s not,” Jason sighed, throwing away the last of the garbage. “The only surprise birthday you’ve ever had and I ruined it.”

“It technically wasn’t you. It was all that confetti.”

“Leo told me there would be too much confetti, but I just ignored him.”

Nico nodded solemnly. “You always did love confetti too much. I told you it would be your downfall one day but you never listen.”

He was trying to joke around but Jason wasn’t really in the mood anymore. He sat down on the boulder and rubbed his face, leaning into Nico when he sat down beside him.

“I’m sorry.”

Nico shrugged. “It’s okay, really. I’m not that great at parties anyway, I probably wouldn’t have had that much fun.”

“Yes, you would have. All the people here were your friends. It was going to be amazing. And this time I can’t redeem myself with a present, seeing as how it burned up.”

“Well, don’t be so sad,” Nico said, cuddling closer to him, “There’s still the rest of the night.”

“It was a watch, by the way,” Jason said, putting an arm around him. He was wet and slightly sticky in places from the food but Jason didn’t mind. “The present.”

“Oh, cool,” Nico said lightly, putting his head on Jason’s shoulder.

“A Mythomagic watch,” Jason clarified.

He could practically feel Nico’s eyes widen out of horror. “A Mythomagic watch,” he whispered reverently, “And it’s gone now.”

“Yup. Now are you as sad as I am?”

He didn’t answer for a while, which obviously meant he was. Sighing, Jason looked up at the night sky. Why was he so bad at birthdays? The rest of the year, he was a great boyfriend, but he could never get these right. It was like there was some sort of curse on him.

Nico moved his damp little head up to the sky too. “The stars look nice tonight.”

“Yeah. They would’ve looked even nicer with the fireworks.”

“Fireworks? What fireworks?”

“Oh, these fireworks I had arranged for…” Jason froze mid-sentence, staring off in the distance at the fireworks machine.

“Jason?”

“It’s not damaged,” Jason said, sitting up straight. “The machine is perfectly okay. Nico, we have fireworks!”

Nico wasn’t half as excited as he should’ve been. “Jason, what are you talking about?”

“Stay here,” Jason told him, and then jumped off the boulder to the machine. He had no idea how to work this thing but the remote control looked pretty straight-forward. He flipped the switch on the machine to activate it and then pressed the first button on the remote that made sense.

In the distance, a firework went off, and then the sky was illuminated with a shower of bright silver sparks. Behind him, he could hear Nico gasp. 

He turned around. “Pretty awesome, huh?” he asked.

Nico just made a vague motion like _get over here_ , his eyes stick stuck to the sky. The silver fireworks were now dying down, trickling down the dark backdrop of the sky, so Jason pressed another button as he walked over to Nico.

He didn’t even have to look at the sky to see the fireworks. They were reflected perfectly in the large pools of Nico’s eyes.

“Like it?” Jason said knowingly as he hoisted himself up beside him.

Nico’s mouth was hanging open and he was so obviously awe-struck, but all he said was, “Meh.”

Laughing, Jason put an arm around him and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Happy birthday, Nico,” he said softly.

He was still soaked, his clothes ruined, but as the sky was painted with explosion after explosion of color, Jason thought that his smile was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

~*~

The year Nico turned seventeen though, _that_ Jason was going to get right.

Especially because this was the year they had barely seen each other, what with Jason going off to college in Camp Jupiter and Nico staying behind in Camp Half-Blood. Sure, he came to visit a lot, but with all of the Seven of the Prophecy in Camp Jupiter, he needed to stay back at Camp Half-Blood so the two camps could co-ordinate. This also meant that he was busy a lot and what with Jason’s studies at university, they hardly ever got time to talk, let alone do anything else.

Nico was coming over for his birthday, though. He was going to be staying with Hazel in the Fifth Cohort barracks, but Jason had invited him to spend a few days at his apartment (yes, Jason got an apartment – ex-praetor privileges, of course, he would never have been able to afford it himself).

The apartment was the whole reason Jason was so nervous, in fact. Because this wasn’t just Nico’s seventeenth birthday – it was also the day that Jason would ask Nico to move in with him.

And by ‘move in with him’ he obviously meant when the time came for Nico to start going to college in New Rome himself. Even though he’d never really gone to normal mortal school, New Rome’s university was allowing him in. He’d need to work harder than everyone else though, and would have to take more study sessions than everyone else – which was why he was planning on starting college soon, not waiting until he was eighteen. 

Jason didn’t protest. In fact, he was looking forward to it. In only a few months, Nico would be moving to New Rome and, hopefully, to Jason’s apartment.

For some reason, he’d had to ask for Reyna and Hazel’s approval over this subject. They’d both said it was fine as long as Nico wanted to do it – after all, it was better than living in the dorms in the university and anyway it wasn’t like they didn’t know Jason and Nico’s relationship was strong enough for them to move in together.

Hazel had, of course, made Jason dance around a bit, begging and cajoling. And Jason was sure that the whole time he’d begged, she’d meant to say yes anyway. A lot of things had changed in three years, but this hadn’t. It almost made Jason want to make fun of her new hairstyle, except whenever he did, Hazel just scoffed, because everyone and their mother knew she looked really freaking cute in it.

Anyway.

He wasn’t going to go overboard with this birthday like last year. He wasn’t going to do absolutely nothing either, like two years ago. He was going to settle for a nice middle ground.

He was going over to Camp Half-Blood to pick Nico up, and then the two of them would go into the city, where Jason had made reservations in a really good Italian restaurant. The only reason he’d even gotten a reservation was because he’d dragged Piper along to convince the manager to let him have a table even though he hadn’t booked it months in advance.

He left New Rome in his best clothes – dark pants and coat, with a blue shirt that, according to Piper, ‘brings out your eyes’ – and ignored Percy’s cat-calling (Percy cat-called him even when he walked around in pajamas – those were horrible days when they both shared the same apartment and Percy wiggled his eyebrows lewdly at him whenever he wasn’t wearing a shirt).

Nico was wearing about the same thing Jason was, but it looked a hell of a lot better on him, probably because he wasn’t wearing a baby blue shirt. (Screw you, Piper.)

“Wow,” Nico said once they entered the restaurant and were being seated, “This is really… sophisticated. How can you afford this?”

“I have friends in high places, Nico,” Jason said mysteriously.

“Piper charmspeaked them, didn’t she?”

Jason narrowed his eyes at Nico’s grin. “No.”

“You’re a horrible liar.”

“Yeah, well,” he muttered, “Your hair is stupid.” It was very hard to look grumpy while Nico was laughing like that. 

When it came to giving their order, Nico talked in Italian to the waiter, who looked insanely happy about it, and Jason fanned his face and tried to act like Nico talking in Italian wasn’t turning him on. Once the waiter was gone, Nico turned to him and cheekily said, “Your face looks like a tomato.”

Flicking his boyfriend’s forehead was childish as hell, but he did it anyway.

Nico laughed so much now, it was hard to associate him with the angry fourteen-year-old Jason had known way back when. He didn’t have loud full-bellied laughs like Piper did – they were quiet chuckles but were bursting with happiness. He smiled and teased and grinned and even made funny faces sometimes (the two of them frequently had funny face competitions during Iris Messages – this is what the long distance had reduced them to). And the weird thing was Jason was sure he didn’t have much to do with that. At least, not as much as people assumed he did. He’d just been one of the many supports Nico had had over the years – other than that, Nico had started laughing all by himself.

And that day, he laughed a lot. By the time their food arrived, he was in complete stitches and so was Jason, in fact. They weren’t even laughing about anything in particular. They just hadn’t seen each other in so long that it felt amazing just to be together again. Jason’s worries evaporated into the air as soon as he was with Nico and his heart felt like a balloon close to bursting with all the love trapped inside.

Gods, if Percy heard him saying things like that, he would call him a complete sap, and wouldn’t be half untrue.

They were on the main course when Jason decided he couldn’t put it off anymore.

“Nico,” he said, watching as Nico tried to spear a piece of steak, “I need to talk to you about something.”

Nico’s fork paused but he didn’t look up. “About what?”

Jason pulled in a deep breath. “Well, it’s kind of serious. I mean, it’s big for us.”

He looked at Jason questioningly. “Big good or big bad?”

“That depends on how you see it. From my point of view, it’s big good.”

“That explains nothing,” Nico said. He was starting to look worried now, and that was making _Jason_ worried.

“I know,” Jason nodded, putting down his fork. “Okay, I’m going to come right out and ask you…”

“Ask me?” Nico’s eyebrows disappeared beneath his bangs. “It’s a question.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “And, well, I’m hoping you’ll say yes.”

Nico’s eyes widened to a comically disproportionate size. “Jason,” he said, “It’s not what I think it is, is it?”

Jason blinked. “Uh, well. Maybe.”

Nico put his fork down and leaned back into his seat. “You can’t be serious,” he said, shaking his head.

This was not the reaction Jason was hoping for. “I am,” he said quickly, “And Nico, it only makes sense, doesn’t it? And I think it’s time for us to, you know, take this step.”

“Jason…”

“Look, you love me, right? And you know I love you. You’re going to be coming to New Rome soon anyway, so why not?”

Nico let out a groan and ran a hand through his hair. “Jason, not on my _birthday_. So this is why you took me to this fancy place? How am I supposed to say no _now_?”

Jason’s heart sank. Just like that. It was like someone popped the love-filled balloon. “You want to say no?” he said in a small voice.

At the hurt on Jason’s face, Nico moved forward, shaking his head, but right then the waiter interrupted. Talking in quick-fire Italian to Nico, he motioned to the door. Confusion dawned on Nico’s face.

“What’s wrong?” Jason said glumly.

The waiter turned to Jason. “There has been a mistake, Mr. Grace. This table is, in fact, not reserved by you. We have a couple waiting near the door – they made reservations all the way back in October.”

Oh, no. “This can’t be happening.”

“If you would like proof, Mr. Grace…”

“We didn’t even get to dessert,” Jason said to Nico, “I had a birthday cake for you and everything.”

“No, we don’t need proof,” Nico said to the waiter, ignoring Jason. “If you would give us the check, we’ll be on our way.”

As if he was waiting for Nico to say that, the waiter flipped out a check right there and then. Jason fumbled for his wallet while pushing down the hurt. No wonder Nico didn’t want to move in with him. He couldn’t even make a reservation right.

As soon as they were out of the restaurant and in the cold air, Nico grabbed Jason’s hand. “I didn’t mean that I don’t want to,” he said firmly, “I just don’t think we’re ready yet. I mean, don’t you think we’re a little too young?”

Anger bubbled up inside Jason. Rejecting him was fine, but making excuses for it? 

“ _Young_?” he cried. “Percy and Annabeth are only a year older than me and only three older than you, and you didn’t call _them_ too young.”

Nico gasped. Actual, honest-to-goodness gasped. He clapped a hand to his mouth and said, in a disbelieving voice, “When did Percy and Annabeth get _married_?”

“What? They’re not…” Jason shook his head. “Wait, you don’t think I was…?”

Nico looked at him expectantly.

“Holy crap, did you think I was _proposing_ to you?”

Nico’s cheeks flushed at the complete incredulousness in Jason’s voice. “Well, weren’t you?” he asked, folding his arms.

Jason couldn’t help it. A bubble of laughter was building up in his chest and as soon as he let it out, he couldn’t stop laughing. He was practically bent over backwards by the time Nico led him to a park bench and stood by sullenly.

“Well, if the thought of proposing to me is so laughable to you,” he huffed.

“No, no, it’s not that,” Jason said, wiping at his eyes. He got up and hugged Nico, not caring about how stiff he was. “It’s not that but I do agree with you – we’re not ready for that.”

“Good,” Nico said, holding his chin high. “Now will you tell me what you were actually asking me, if not _that_?”

Trying to stifle the giggles, Jason held both of Nico’s hands in his and said, “I was going to ask you to move in with me.”

Nico blinked. All at once, the annoyed look faded from his eyes. “Move in with you?” he asked, and he actually sounded like he thought it was a good idea.

“Yeah. You’re going to New Rome University soon, aren’t you? I bet my apartment’s going to be a lot more comfortable than the dorms on campus. And you spend a lot of time there anyway, whenever you come to visit. So,” he grinned. “What do you say?”

A small smile tugged at Nico’s lips. “Well,” he said, “It’s no proposal but,” he shrugged.

Jason was half-way through complaining about how Nico even had to say ‘yes’ in a completely off-hand manner, but Nico’s lips were sort of in the way, and then he forgot where he was going with that.

“Just so you know,” Jason said once they pulled away, “I’m going to hold that time you thought I was proposing to you over your head as blackmail for the rest of your life.”

Nico just rolled his eyes. “Like I don’t have enough things to blackmail you with. Now go and buy me a birthday cake, Mr. I-don’t-fart-in-my-sleep-you’re-just-hearing-things.”

Jason did buy him a new cake, but not because of the blackmailing. Because that’s just, you know, completely false. Nico was just hearing things.

~*~

Jason’s learnt a few things over the years. Now, when Nico’s birthday rolls around, Jason doesn’t forget – he has a calendar that he looks at and crosses days out every day, where he has the date marked. He doesn’t freak out and arrange a ridiculously huge party – he only invites their close friends, and they usually spend the evening playing video games and gorging themselves on junk food. And when he does take Nico out to restaurants, he makes sure to have an actual reservation, and doesn’t drop life-changing questions on him in the middle of their main course.

One day, Jason rolls over to Nico’s side of the bed, fully intending to crush him underneath his body, and sees he’s not there. As he blearily rubs at his eyes, he sees a big red circle on the calendar, marked with “BIRTHDAY TODAY”, with all the previous dates crossed out. Today is Nico’s birthday.

Groggily getting out of bed to look for him, Jason pads out into the hallway and sees Nico standing by a window, looking down at the roads, holding a cup of coffee underneath his chin. He leans back into Jason when he wraps his arms around him.

“Morning,” Nico says.

Jason buries his face in Nico’s hair, pretending he’s not falling asleep in there. “Happy birthday,” he mumbles.

Nico laughs lowly. “What?” He turns around in his arms.

“It’s your birthday,” Jason says, smiling. “You’re twenty-three. We need to celebrate.”

“Jason,” Nico says, holding up Jason’s drooping head, “What makes you think it’s my birthday?”

“The calendar was marked.”

Nico laughs again. “Jason, that’s not for my birthday. That’s for yours.”

Jason lifts his head to see if Nico’s joking, but he isn’t. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he looks out the window to confirm that, yup, it’s summer. 

“Wow,” he says, “I completely forgot.”

Nico nods. “It figures. You’re always so worried about me having a good birthday every year, you forget you even have one yourself.”

He leans up and kisses Jason’s cheek while Jason looks around at the world like a newly hatched duckling would. “It’s my birthday,” he says.

“It’s your birthday,” Nico confirms. “Happy twenty-fifth.”

Jason looks down at him: at his silky hair that he’s pulled into a messy half-ponytail, the remnants of sleep still stuck to the edges of his eyes, his slightly chapped lips, his long fingers as they brush Jason’s hair back, Jason’s hoodie that is somehow too big for him but looks perfect at the same time. He doesn’t know how he got so lucky, but he thanks the stars for it.

His head tilts, leans into Nico’s hand. “So,” he says, “Now what?”

And Nico grins, cheekily, his eyes lighting up like a night sky streaked with fireworks. 

“Now,” he says, “we celebrate.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked this short little thingy I wrote, I did it literally in one sitting. If any of you are on tumblr, go wish my buddy a happy birthday (she's at hucoodox)  
> Kudos, comments etc are welcomed. Tell me what you guys think.


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